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Chapter 2: Good, Bad, and Very Bad News/Writing
"This is just a quick heads up," a woman said as she opened the glass paneled door that read Powell, CEO. The woman had her brown eyes down on the paper as she headed in; she failed to notice Kelly standing behind the door, adjusting her red-dyed hair. The door pushed her forward softly; the high heels she wore made her unbalanced and she tumbled over the padded chair. The woman that opened the door closed it and stood there without noticing her boss slumped over the chair in front of her. "I have good, bad, and very bad news. The good news is your park is scheduled to open tomorrow. The bad news is you have to cut to rope; the really bad news is you have to travel there by monorail," the woman said when she finally looked up. Her vision has always been blurred when she tried to see far distance even with the wide-rimmed glasses she wears at the bridge of her nose. She saw her boss, but her blurred vision made it look like she was standing up. "I have even better news: you're allowed to take one person, excluding me, with you to the opening. Which brings me to the other worse news: you're going to have to spend the trip with other people in the same car as you." Kelly finally was able to pull herself up from the chair and she fixed her hair again. She, even more unbalanced than before, wobbled to her desk and sat down. She heard everything her assistant had said, but muttered to herself. "Also, I have a meeting for you at Café Freizeit with the president of the labor contractor we hired. What was his name; oh, James Burleson. No, he's not the president; he's who we're talking to the president about. Apparently, we're going to have to give him a free weekend at AstroPast; we've worked him too hard and now the union is getting on our asses about it. If we don't take care of it, we're going to get sued and lose our company," the assistant rambled. The sun reflected off of her name and gave a reflection of her name; *Rosemarie L. Long*. "Also," Rosemarie (nicknamed Rose by all her coworkers) started, "I need you to come with me to talk with Manuel about the wiring and costs of electricity that will power the park. If he's coming to a price way off, I say we fire him right there. He's that lazy technician that never gets any of his work done and he's always picking fights in the main lobby with some of the other workers here. That will be at about two and your meeting's at four; it's one twenty. Do you want to start heading down that way now?" Her boss nodded and stood up; she moved to the side, took off her glasses, and rubbed her eye. Those glasses never work in the offices, though she needed them on. "Can you tell me again why we hired that baffling lunatic for technician?" Kelly asked. Her heels made an echoing *klick-klack* as she walked beside her assistant down the vacant hall. "It's because his father was the old techy and we wanted to keep the family tradition going. That, or we'd be sued for a ridiculous reason. Knowing our luck, though, we'd be found guilty. He hired him for the sake of the company, I guess," Rose remarked with a shrug. There wasn't much of a better answer. "Oh, and as for the person I can invite; can it be anyone, or does it have to be a be a coworker?" Kelly asked quickly, then sighed and continued, "If it's anyone, send an email to Beck for me. I want to know if he wants to go or if I'm going to have to ask that fat reporter stalking the halls anymore. Isn't Adkins supposed to be on?" "No, remember? You fired him and he got a real job at the police force. I say he actually got the good end of the deal, because now he's able to support his old family with child care bills and that. Though, we're rehiring him for the park. We will need more security than what we have at the moment. He'll be coming with us on the monorail when we travel," Rose said and suddenly stopped. Her boss stopped too, but her ankle almost gave in. The pain shot through her leg and up her body. It was that of almost 7- "Here we are, the geek layer," she said sarcastically. She even had to roll her eyes when she said geek; she felt like Manuel (Manny by nickname) was wasting his life playing those games and reading those stories. The only times he ever comes out of his layer are when he needs the restroom, wants to pick a fight, or when he needs something to eat. To Rose, Manny looked like the kind of animal he was: a filthy low-life rat. The way his whiskers reflected the light from the computer screen to the way he walked. He mirrored a lab rat down to even what he eats. He would always say that what and the way he eats is because of his parents and his doctor. His voice is even a scratchy and squeaky sort. Everyone laughs at the office party when he finally exits his domain and gets drunk; he can't stand on his own two feet as it is. Kelly slowly opened the door (which read B. Walker) to the technical support room (Manny turned it into his layer). Her eyes saw only darkness but then the small outline of shelves came into view. She and her assistant quietly trekked into the darkness and around the tall cabinet with the equipment for audio, visual, and SFX. "Oh, Rose, can you go and get me an appointment with my chiropractor? I really need to see him for my ankle," quietly she said. Her assistant wrote down the reason and nodded, and she headed out the door. Alone, Kelly continued down the long rows of cabinets until she saw the flickering light on the other side of the room. "Manny," she said quietly at first. She continued to call his name louder; she didn't want to go any further into the room than she wanted to. Hearing no response, she sighed to herself and took a step closer to the light. The echo of her heel sent a shiver down her spine. She took another step and then another until she finally reached the, for what she could see, blue light. She looked down at the different game systems connected to each of the TVs surrounding the young adult in front of her. His eyes were glued to the screens and his fingers raced and jabbed at the buttons on the controller. It was hour five in the competition and there was no way Manny was going to quit now. Only two contestants remained anyway: Him and a girl by the name of Bessie Campos (Gamer Tag: CamposCampingFTW). Not once in Manny's simple yet pathetic life has he lost a game to a girl. The game was simple. You control an army and you must take out the other people's army. Sounding like Risk, right? Only, in this game, there's one major difference: if you lose, you lose your Gamer Tag (We'll call it a GT to make it easier). All the progress you would make on that GT would be gone within an instance and you'd have to make a new one. How could this happen? The game is run by and underground group of hackers; Manny is one of the leaders of the group. The match was heated up from the start. There was already a large advantage for Bessie when Manny's original base was eliminated. Despite the offset, Manny pushed and set up a new base while taking out one of hers. The eliminating, rebuilding, and re-eliminating went on and on between the two. That one match lasted those five hours, but Manny was starting to slip and the blasts rang in her ears; the voice ringed in his ears too when the headphones came off. His fingers skipped a button and the robot onscreen blew up into a thousand pieces. The words read on the TV in dark blood text: "You have Died. Game Over." It was over for the competition. "Manny! Can you hear me?!" Kelly said into Manny's left ear. He shot to the right and hit a pile of cases for the different games he bought. "Good. Listen, I need you to do something for me. You hav- "No!" Manny cried. His voice cracked again and his fists clenched. "You don't realize what you did! Do you? Of course not! I need to get back to level twenty now because of you. I hope you're happy with yourself." "Oh, I'm very pleased because now I'm on the verge of firing you for not doing your job," Kelly started with a smirk. "Clear out all the shit you have in here and get ready for the trip over to AstroPark. You can become like Astro Man or Mega Boy, or whatever their names are. We're heading out tomorrow, Tuesday, at seven. Understand? Tomorrow, seven, or you're fired." "You know what 'Ms. Wannabe-Company-Ruler-Or-Something', I'm beginning to think you love to make my life a living hell. You're always nagging me to do something or not do something again. You're going back and forth with yourself, and you're always collapsing. To be honest, I hope you do fire me as I'm quitting after this stupid job. Understand?" Manny finished and glared up at his boss squatting in front of him. She was stunned; she's never been talked back to, not even by someone as low life as Manny. "Yeah, I understand, loud and clear. Uhm, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then on the monorail," Kelly spoke softly as she stood up and turned her back to the tech. He just snuffed and grunted. He's disgusted that he would lost his awards and achievements, and the fact he's got to admit he lost to a girl. Kelly followed the isles again and found her way to the door. She opened it and was nearly blinded by the lighting in the hall. She's never noticed how bright they were before. She closed her eyes and turned left down were she once came. A palm on her chest stopped her and she opened her eyes to see her assistant. "Alright, so more good, bad, and very bad news. Good news is that your love said yes to the invite. We'll have to pick him up before we come here; it's the only way he can go on the trip with us. The bad news is that the chiropractor was booked until Wednesday, but I managed to get you an appointment at two twenty on the dot. If you're unable to make it, let me know now and I'll change it," Rose said quickly. Her lips moved faster than what her boss could comprehend. "What about the very bad news? What is it?" She asked and noticed the wall clock's large hand touch the ten and the small hand touch the four. "Oh, shit, how did I become late?" "That's what I was going to ask you," Rose started as she shuffled down the hall. Her boss trailed behind her as they soon reached the front doors in half the time remaining. "I took the liberty of packing your things and have them inside your car already. You just have to get there." She smiled and opened the doors for her boss. The latter thanked her and she nodded in agreement. She watched her boss head for her car and waited until she was in the red Mustang Convertible before closing the doors. Category:Final Destination: Trip of a Lifetime Category:Final Destination Category:Final Destination (Writing)